Please register to participate in our discussions with 1.5 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.

Well, this may not be the best advice, but........... I did have this happen to me once. I go the letter from the DMV about turning in the plates for 30 days because of a one day lapse in insurance. However, I did not receive a ticket. Basically, I just drove my car anyways and kept the tag. I told the DMV I mailed it in, and if they did not receive it, I am not sure why. When the 30 days was up, I paid the $20 registration fee, got a new tag and that was that. Like I said, perhaps not the best or even "legal" advice but I was a single gal with a job and had to get to work. Do with it what you will I would agree with previous posters about going to court to show current insurance and such. You'll probably get the ticket thrown out, pay the court costs, and get the letter about NC taking your plate for 30 days. If you really don't drive the car that much, just hand it in.

I got a ticket for no insurance, forgot what county ... I think it was either Mecklenburg or Rowan or something like that. anyway ... I was insured at the time and brought that proof with me to the court house. The DA looked at the proof and crossed something off her paperwork and went back to waiting, then when my name was called, I said "not guilty" in front of the judge and paid court costs and I was done within an hour or so. I'm not a lawyer, this ain't legal advice.

This happened to me. Once your insurance lapses, not only do you have to turn in your plates, but you won't get them back for 30 days! You can't drive that car for that period of time.
Luckily for you, the car isn't driven much.

I got the ticket for driving w/o insurance thrown out by hiring a lawyer, but I still had to turn those plates in. Then they charge you like a $200 'registration re-instatement fee'!

Good luck - dealing with the NC DMV is an experience!

They are right. If your insurance laspes for just a day, you can lose your plate for 30 days. Now if you realize it, some insurance companies can file back if it hasn't been more than 10 days since the laspe that you were not involved in an accident, have you to sign that and then pay a $50.00 fine and be done with it. But it sounds like to me that you have two options. Leave the tag with DMV and ride out the 30 days and retag it afterwards or request a hearing with DMV. But let me warn you, DMV is worse to deal with than the IRS. When we moved something similar happened to me and the tag went out even though I changed my address with DMV and should have been notified. But I wasn't. And when I had the hearing, I told him that I never got the letter giving me the option to pay the $50.00 fine. Eventually I did pay the fine and got to retain my tag but I got this long and lengthy letter from DMV stating the particulars of the hearing and they never did admit that even though I had proof I had changed my address with DMV that it was their mistake that it never made it to the main computer in Raleigh. Good luck.

SunnyKayak did not even read the entirety of your original post before responding. Clearly you stated that you had current insurance on the vehicle. My recommendation is to plead not guilty, explain everything to the judge and make sure he knows that it is not your vehicle and that you were not aware of the particulars of the law.

Also, SunnyKayak - the proper word is legal counsel, not legal council. A council is a group of people, counsel is advice.

I had been out of work for some time, and my husband income was reduced and bills were piling fast. We were unable to get insurance inmediately and had a 5-6 week lapse.
We received a letter from DMV stating that we needed to send $50 along with a letter as to why there had been a lapse in insurance. At this point we had gotten a new insurance company, so I did send in the money, letter of explanation and proof of insurance however, it was never received!
The time period they gave me to provide such documents expired and I received another letter stating I had to surrender my plates to DMV for 30days.
I inmediately called and told them I had sent the proof, $50, and letter.
They told me a DMV officer was going to call me and set up a phone hearing in 30-45days.
I received a letter by mail with date and time I should expect the call. I was also required to fax all documentation as to why I shoudn't be found guilty of having a lapse in my insurance. This needed to be done 24 hrs. before the hearing. I completely forgot about faxing the documents 24hrs. before but managed to send them about 15 hrs before. ( I figured something is better than nothing).
I wrote a script that night to be prepared for the hearing and to what I was going to say to the officer.
He called on time, introduced himself, and said:The reason for this call today is to determine if you are at fault for not having proper coverage in the state of NC".
Now, can you explain why you havd no insurance coverage from /// to /// time?
I began to read my notes and made it clear to him that I fully understood that driving in the state of NC is a privilage and not a right.
I told him we were having taught times and tried to pay that month but bounced, and we were remorseful for what had happend.
He was very nice and understanding, at the end he said, "being that this is your first offense, I will not revoke your plates for 30days, I will send you a letter by mail, take it to DMV and pay $50."
We were very lucky to get out of that one!
We had a lapse of 5-6 weeks, we had 3 vehicles plates that were possibly going to be taken aways from us. (Altough, only one VIN# was showing)??
We did not fax the documents 24 hrs as stated.
So, don't give in so easily, when they call you , be remorseful and have them understand your situation, we are all humans and things don't always work out how we need them to.
Luckily this one did.

Plenty of times I've been tempted to write the DMV and tell them to eat #!@$ and die. They have their devious ways of getting money , it's what they do. Keep in mind the original meaning of the acronym was Department on Moneygrabbing Vultures.

Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.